We have no way of predicting where or when we might be confronted with the opportunity to rewire our basic construct of priorities and embark on a lifelong adventure of goodness that includes unimaginable situations of pleasant surprises and happiness.
In Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Story,” we get to see the miracle take place where Ebenezer Scrooge never “retired” -- he simply “rewired.” He had the opportunity to rewire the motherboard of his personal computer – he got the circuit board of his life’s purpose figured out. And uniquely enough, we discover that every act of goodness following that transition, became a stepping-stone to Scrooge’s own personal fulfillment.
That’s because “Goodness” pays double – the recipient of goodness is enhanced and affirmed; and secondly, the initiator of the thoughtful deed or gesture is rewarded.
It was in Brazil that God began to sensitize me to the overwhelming need for medical supplies and equipment to be supplied to the needy and hurting people in those lesser developed countries. when I first began visiting Brazil, Project C.U.R.E. did not exist. I had started going to Rio and Sao Paulo and Brasilia and Belo Horizonte and Recife and Natal and Goiania as an economic consultant working with President Sarney's administration and Antonio Basalar, one of Brazil's chief economists. We had eventually put together an economic plan known as the Libra Proposal, which was designed to facilitate Brazil's repayment of international loans back to US banks. The fiscal plan was utilized, but little did I know during those days just why it was that God had destined my being in Brazil. It certainly wasn't just for helping design fiscal or monetary policy for the government of a lesser developed country.
As an economist, I had been the one who had set up the meetings in Washington, D.C., bringing the Brazilian groups to meet with James Baker, then Secretary of the US Treasury. But little did I know that those negotiations and high-level meetings would soon seem bland and pale compared to the meetings which would quickly be taking place affecting thousands and thousands of lives of needy people around the world.
The people who were involved in that initial saga, of what became Project C.U.R.E., became some of the dearest friends I had in all the world. Lorena Zambrano Barnes, now a medical doctor married to Dr. Paulo Velho, a well-known specialist in dermatology and infectious diseases in Brazil, played a great part in the infant stages of Project C.U.R.E. As my Portuguese interpreter, Dr. Lorena and her mother, Dr. Natalia Zambrano Barnes, and Lorena's sister, Dr. Natasha Zambrano Barnes, used to take me on their medical rounds. We went not only to the deplorable hospitals where they practiced, but also out to the clinics in the slums and favelas of the cities, where they unselfishly volunteered their medical services. That medical family became perhaps as close to me as my own brothers and sisters.
It was Dr. Paulo and Dr. Lorena who introduced me to Dr. Vilmar Thrombeta, the Director General of the large university in the city of Campinas, Brazil, along with Dr. Aguinelo Cunha, the head of the University Hospital in Campinas, and Dr. Francisco, and Dr. Jose Reis. In fact, Dr. Reis, and his wife Elaina, came to Evergreen, Colorado, and stayed with us in our home.
Our new Brazilian team worked tirelessly together for over ten years. I made many trips to Brazil with the new Project C.U.R.E. entity, in addition to the other 58 countries in which we were now shipping donated medical goods. The involvements and the results in Brazil were staggering.
In 1997, my dear friend, Vilmar Thrombeta had become ill. He was talking to our precious Dr. Lorena on the telephone. Vilmar began to cry. He said he had been praying and telling God that he wanted to some way be able to see his best friend, James Jackson, in Brazil at least one more time before he died, so that they could once again talk and be friends. When I learned about the phone call, Anna Marie and I quickly made arrangements to fly back to Sao Paulo state. I thanked God for such a privilege.
During our unique time together, Vilmar and I reminisced about the days when Project C.U.R.E. had first come to the University Hospital in Campinas when Vilmar was Director General in charge of the entire university and medical school. “Jim, we were struggling for our very existence. We were behind in our financial payments and had nowhere to turn. We needed more students in the university, everything needed to be updated and replaced in our University Hospital. We had the responsibility of establishing more local clinics inside Sao Paulo State but had absolutely no way to build or furnish any new clinics.
Vilmar reminded me of how we went together to the government offices and persuaded them to give us permits to build more clinics. We even gained approval from them to build a new 300-bed addition onto the University Hospital. We talked about Project C.U.R.E. bringing millions of dollars-worth of the latest in updated pieces of medical equipment and high-tech instruments, and medical supplies. Now, all the medical students in that part of South America wanted to come to the University that Vilmar was running because they would have access to learn on the latest technology. “Jim, everything changed. You even showed us how to organize our University alumni so that they could help us with our financial needs.”
“You brought us all those new ideas and things – but do you know the most important thing you brought us? – You brought us ‘Hope’ – you loved us and encouraged us to take what we had and make it better. That even changed the way our board, and staff, and doctors began to talk and think. And with that idea of change, we began to help all our people more and more. We used to say ‘Oh, we can’t do that, we don’t have any money.’ Now we say, ‘someone believes enough in us to come along side us and help us.’ It was that hope that I believe saved our University and our wonderful Hospital. We in Campinas, Sao Paulo owe so much to God and Project C.U.R.E.”
It hurt to have to say good-by to our dear, dear friend, Dr. Vilmar Thrombeta. But Anna Marie and I quietly rejoiced in our hearts as we departed.
Yes, Goodness pays double – at least double!
Next Week: Goodness is Authentic – But can be Counterfeited
"GOODNESS" Part 10: Goodness is Contagious
I’ve discovered that “goodness” is contagious. People’s lives are defined by where they direct their passions. When those passions are directed toward goodness, other people standing close by, observe that there is cultural benefit that flows from those attitudes and actions of goodness. Those same people are then drawn to get involved in attitudes and actions of goodness, --themselves!
I had been given the prestigious “9 Who Care Award” by Chanel 9, Denver’s NBC affiliate. They had produced a lovely feature segment on the work of Project C.U.R.E. and had aired it on their evening news program. At his home watching the Project C.U.R.E. segment was a gentleman named “Bob.”
Bob was a successful businessman who owned his own painting company. When the Denver Broncos NFL football team made it to their first Super Bowl game, Bob was so excited that he chose to paint his whole residence the blue and orange team colors of the Broncos. The unusual site was featured by a front-page picture in the Denver Post newspaper. From that time on Bob was dubbed with the affectionate nickname, “Bronco Bob.”
A few years later, Bob decided to sell his painting business. An unexpected thing happened. With his business gone and the new owners not needing or wanting his involvement or advice, Bob began to sense his loss and began to question his future and his own personal value. He began to experience depression and those feelings of depression deepened. His wife later told me of how he would some days never even want to get out of bed. Here was a man with giftedness in marketing and abilities enough to run a very successful business.
On the night the television station featured Project C.U.R.E., Bob sat up at attention and said to his wife, “That’s it! That’s what I want to do. I’m going to help Project C.U.R.E.” The next day he called the Project C.U.R.E. office and set a time for an interview and a tour through the facilities. Dave, our Vice President of volunteers, guided him on his tour. About half way through the warehouse tour “Bronco Bob” asked, “Do you have gloves here?”
Dave, thinking that Bob was inquiring about the millions of pairs of surgical and sterile latex gloves that Project C.U.R.E. was sending out all over the world, answered, “Oh, yes, Bob.” Dave went on, “Right over here are the pallets of latex gloves ready to send out and save lots of lives.”
Bob quickly answered back, “No, I’m not talking about latex gloves. Do you have a pair of good leather gloves? I’m ready to start volunteering for Project C.U.R.E. right now! Let’s get started.”
Even after many months of volunteering in our warehouse, the other co-workers would tell me how exciting it was just to work with “Bronco Bob.” He would be walking down through the aisles of the warehouse, arranging the pallets of items to be loaded onto the next huge ocean- going cargo container. He would raise his leather gloves into the air and shout, “Hallelujah, I just love my new life at Project C.U.R.E.” Later on, Bob and his wife even bought a diesel truck and gave it to Project C.U.R.E. for the collection of medical goods in the Denver area.
Bob’s newly directed passion had dramatically changed him. New worth and meaning had now invaded and defined his life. But that passion didn’t just affect “Bronco Bob.” He became one of Project C.U.R.E.’s most effective volunteer recruiters in the history of the organization.
For as many years as his health allowed, Bob showed up at the warehouse to volunteer. Every day “Bronco Bob’s” passion, enthusiasm, and love of life energized everyone else around him. Others who observed the goodness being injected into the cultural situation experienced a compelling urge to get involved in the endeavor of goodness for themselves.
Beware! As a contagious agent of change, you just might end up inspiring others!
Next Week: Goodness Pays Double
"GOODNESS" Part 9: Goodness Promotes Civility
I was requested to travel to Kiev, Ukraine in 1996, to evaluate several old Soviet-styled hospitals, to see if Project C.U.R.E. could successfully enter into a relationship with them to help upgrade their facilities. When I returned home from my trip, I was contacted by staff members of the very large Porogov University Hospital located in the city of Vinnitsa, in the central part of Ukraine. The doctors there were very eager to get hold of American medical books and curriculum on the subject of “Urology.”
I informed my new friends that providentially, I had just received a sizable donation of Urology books from a doctor in Littleton, Colorado. They were overjoyed. I sent the books in the very next shipping container headed to Ukraine. Then, an interesting miracle happened.
Just a couple of weeks later, I found out that Project C.U.R.E. would have access to the donation of the entire medical library from the Ft. Carson Army Base in Colorado. I got back in touch with the folks in Ukraine and asked them to sit down while I told them the good news so that they would not faint. A long story made short -- we shipped our 18 tons of American medical books into the University. As a result of Project C.U.R.E.’s donation, they now had the finest English medical library in all of Eastern Europe.
Another result of my extensive time spent in Ukraine was that a number of well-placed people there found out that I was actually an Economist and had gotten my start in life as an entrepreneur. When the large Kiev University found that out, they insisted that I present a series of lectures at the University for the Senior Class members, and all the Graduate Students on “Free Market Enterprise” and give an explanation of “Capitalism.” They had all just experienced the failure of their own economic system.
The day I finished my lectures, I was scheduled to travel by train from Kiev down to the University of Vinnitsa to check on our work there. None of my regular hosts were able to take the time to travel with me. I was on my own.
One of the University students, named Yarslov, happily agreed to take me to the Kiev train station and see to it that I got on the correct train. Tucked away in that part of Ukraine, not many regular train-riding folks ever encountered an American up close and personal – and for sure, none spoke English. I thanked Yarslov, jumped up into the coach doorway, and began looking for my assigned compartment. I could only hope that there would be someone at the other end of the line who would find me and pick me up.
There was no such thing as first class on my assigned train, but the price certainly was reasonable for second class. I only paid the equivalent of U.S. $5 for the nearly 4‑hour train trip to Vinnitsa. The train had been traveling all night before arriving in Kiev that morning. The train car's individual compartments held four people each. When I got on the train the compartment was still made up into a sleeping car arrangement. Three other people were already occupying my compartment.
A middle‑aged couple had staked their claim on the upper births; their clothes and food leftovers were strewn on the compartment table and around on the floor. The other man who was to round‑out our cozy foursome was a shriveled up old man with thick glasses and white hair. He wore a gray hard‑wool suit with the whole left front of his suit jacket covered with military medals and badges of accomplishment.
I had just put my box and two bags on the lower, left bench seat close to the compartment door. The short, wiry, retired military man stood right up in the compartment and began rearranging in a split second the articles of the compartment ...including my things. I had seen situations like this turn crusty and nasty before.
Inside my head and inside my heart I was reassured that attitudes and acts of goodness were the strongest and most effective powers in the universe. I had learned a long time ago that people will respond and respect you to the same degree as you respect and are kind to them. It was time to cultivate a little civility and neighborliness.
I smiled warmly at the old junior czar and he mumbled something in Russian. I replied with a mumble in English. When he realized I spoke English only he simply snapped his head around to the opposite direction and stared toward the compartment wall. I settled into my little space figuring that my writing would not be disturbed on that trip by talking trivia. The train was very hot and stuffy. I don't think there was any ventilation access anywhere. To increase the uniqueness of the setting, the stuffy heat of the train was only superseded by the nauseating smells.
Old heavy‑set Ukrainian women with knurled faces and hands gathered in droves around the stopped passenger trains. In their cloth bags with rope handles they brought homemade food to the train sides to sell to the hungry passengers. Before we pulled away from Kiev Station the middle‑aged couple from our compartment jumped down from their beds and purchased some of the food. I scooted over in my seat and made room for them to spread their newly acquired goodies out on the already messy table ...so much for doing any writing. Inside the outside wrappers of old newspapers, the hungry folks found their prize ...a plastic bag which held the contents of greasy potato chunks, slimy cooked cabbage, and chunks of meat of unknown ancestry. Small loaves of unwrapped bread along with a smaller plastic bag of pickles rounded out their breakfast menu.
I began smiling at each person individually. They began to respond kindly, and we began communicating without words. The man slipped out of our compartment and returned from somewhere with four forks and four bottles of beer. He gave the old military man one of the beers and pushed one bottle along with a fork into my hands. I laughed and smiled and gestured that I was sufficiently full and set the beer and the fork back onto the small table. The international, cross‑cultural ice was now broken. Everyone was now waving their hands and speaking in languages known only to themselves.
I reached into my thin attaché and pulled out some pictures of my family. They handled them with their greasy hands and laid them on the table, which was swimming in pickle juice. They “ooooed” and “aaaahed”, especially at the grandchildren. Then the old antagonistic soldier finally smiled and pulled from his wallet two crumpled black and white photos I presumed to be his wife and daughter taken many years before.
As the train clickity‑clacked down the uneven Ukrainian rails toward Vinnitsa, everyone sat back with big smiles. With or without the use of words, we had all become friends. We had turned an uncertain and insecure world into a train compartment of civility and friendship.
Unexpected acts of goodness are the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agents of human change. It matters not the geographic location or strange collection of individuals, “Goodness” can be counted on to promote civility.
Next Week: Goodness is Contagious
"GOODNESS" Part 8: The Longing for Goodness is Universal
There is a curious phenomenon that I have observed, that appears in some of the least expected venues of this crazy and unpredictable world. Oh, yes, -- there is plenty of evil and selfish skullduggery to cover this world in spades. But the remarkable peculiarity that catches my attention is the persistence and universality of this idea of “goodness.” Whether you are looking for it or not – its everywhere.
People long to be treated with goodness. And down deep within the human specie there is a desire to engage in acts and attitudes of goodness. People find it rewarding to treat others with kindness and be able to respond and help them when they are in particular need.
I have found outstanding examples of goodness and compassion in the varied countries of Africa while traveling there over the past 35 years. I believe that Project C.U.R.E. has shipped millions of dollars-worth of desperately needed medical goods into nearly all those countries.
In the city of Owerri in Imo State, Nigeria, Project C.U.R.E. became involved in an educational and humanitarian opportunity to be involved in “goodness” in a huge way. Honorable Ike Ibe, the Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, traveled from Washington, DC to Denver, Colorado, in 2003. The trip was to specifically request help from Project C.U.R.E. The Ambassador knew we were involved in acts of “goodness.”
In 2000, King Eze A.N. Onyeka had already made me a Royal African Chief, “Chief Uzoma of Nkume People,” at an unforgettable ceremony in Nigeria. Now, the country needed help. “We desperately need to relocate the university medical teaching hospital to Owerri, in Imo State. We have enough resources to build the buildings, but we have no way of furnishing the facility with beds, medical equipment, or supplies. We simply need everything to put inside a teaching hospital! Will you please help us?”
After traveling to Owerri to personally assess the request, Project C.U.R.E. agreed to help them. Over the months, we processed and shipped nearly eight million dollars’ worth of desperately needed medical goods to the new University Teaching Hospital in Owerri. A huge miracle was taking place. In the late summer, I received word from Ambassador Ike Ibe that I should make plans to return to Owerri on November 30, 2004, for the grand celebration and commissioning of the beautiful, new hospital. Everyone who was important in that area of Africa would be attending. The president of Nigeria would be there, as would his cabinet, the governors, the university officials, and the tribal kings and royal chiefs. I would need to bring my royal chief regalia and be prepared to celebrate a modern miracle.
I arrived in Lagos and was flown to Port Harcourt, then escorted by car to the city of Owerri, in Imo State. The evening before the day of celebration, the president of Nigeria hosted a lovely dinner at the hotel ballroom. The next morning my hosts arranged for me to view the new teaching hospital by myself. They escorted me through the front doors and into the beautiful reception rooms and down each hallway of the hospital. They were afraid that if they made me wait until the president and his entourage and all the press toured the facility, they would not have time to personally show me and properly thank Project C.U.R.E. for the impossible miracle.
As I walked through each room and hallway, I was overwhelmed with emotion and a deep sense of satisfaction and gratitude. Immediately, I began to spot pieces of medical equipment and shelves loaded with supplies that had once been in our Project C.U.R.E. warehouses in the U.S.
Examination tables, various diagnostic scopes, blood pressure equipment, needles, syringes, and wound care kits that had been carefully sorted and packed into large ocean-going cargo containers by Project C.U.R.E. volunteers now filled the offices and rooms of the out-patient department. The only mammography machine in that part of Africa had made it safely from Project C.U.R.E. in Nashville to Nigeria, and had already been installed by bio-med technicians. The large x-ray machine had already been installed and the portable x-ray machine was proudly displayed in the hallway leading to the operating rooms.
I recognized the beds, the gurneys, the EKG machines, the defibrillators, the baby cribs and incubators, and all the items in the operating theaters. Everything had come from Project C.U.R.E. You can only imagine how terribly excited the doctors were when I came to their departments to share the moment with them.
The nurses were in their best starched outfits and busily scampering around making sure everything would be perfect for the tour of the Nigerian president and the governor of Imo State.
It was an unbelievable day of history and importance for the people of Imo State. They all knew as of Tuesday, November 30, 2004 that their hospital would be judged as one of the finest teaching hospitals in Africa. They proudly declared, “This now is the finest medical facility in Imo State and one of the best in Nigeria because of Project C.U.R.E.”
The people of Imo State, Nigeria, were desperately longing for someone to come to help them in their time of need. They needed someone to exercise some “goodness.” The thousands of volunteers in the Project C.U.R.E. warehouses scattered across the United States -- over in America -- were equally longing to reach out, and from hearts of kindness and compassion do everything possible to meet the needs of their distant friends whom they would never meet in their lifetimes.
And now, as a result of that first layer of goodness, the dedicated doctors and nurses of the new teaching hospital would be able to reach out in healing compassion to the sick and needy patients of Imo State. But in addition to all that, the Country of Nigeria and Imo State health authorities could become actively engaged in teaching thousands of young men and women over the years, in the arts and sciences of medicine. That new level of goodness would extend to the borders of eternity and literally change their known world.
The more I begin to understand and see this unspeakable phenomenon of “goodness” in action, the more I want to give myself to fulfilling that universal longing with immediate and direct attitudes and actions of love and compassion.
Next Week: Goodness Promotes Civility
"GOODNESS" Part 7: I Want to be a Change Maker for Good
No one is just automatically born a “Change Maker.” An individual decides to become a change maker for goodness. Somewhere along the journey of life, an individual becomes aware of a challenge or a need and dares to become a part of the solution rather than remain part of the problem.
It was Mother Teresa who said, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”
While spending time in the areas around Calcutta, India, I, indeed, did learn of the many ripples the lady created in a world of unspeakable misery and wretchedness. Mother Teresa was born in the city of Skopje, which is now part of Macedonia, not far from Albania. She was born to an Albanian-Kosovar family by the name of Bojaxhiu and given the name (translated) Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu.
At the time, Skopje was part of Kosovo. All of that area was part of the Muslim-controlled Ottoman Empire. In my travels in that part of the world, I would run across the path of Mary Teresa (Mother Teresa) in Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia. When she was 18, she moved to Ireland and joined the Sisters of Loreto at the Abbey not far from Dublin. There she learned English. Eventually, she moved to the Kolkata (Calcutta) area in India where she learned the Bengali language and became a school teacher.
During her work, she became increasingly disturbed by all the extreme poverty and illness in the Calcutta area. Following the unusually brutal Bengal famine in 1943, she felt directly called of God to move out of the Convent and go live among the poor and sick and take care of them by sharing God’s love directly with the people. By 1948, she was involved with her work, but without money, begging for food herself, she was tempted to return to the comfort and security of the Convent. Her simple but forceful reply was, “Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard. I did not let a single tear come.”
Mother Teresa would continually remind those working with her, “A beautiful death is for people who lived like animals to die like angels – loved and wanted.”
She would also remind others around her that, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
In 1950 Mother Teresa received Vatican permission for the diocesan congregation to become known as “Missionaries of Charity.” She summed up her orders and her life-calling to care for "the hungry, the naked, the homeless the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” The little 13-member congregation in Calcutta started in 1950, grew by 1997 into a congregation of more than 4,000 Sisters who managed orphanages, AIDs hospices, and charity centers around the world. They cared for the blind, the disabled, aged, alcoholics, the poor, homeless, victims of floods, epidemics and famine.
By 2007, the Missionaries of Charity numbered about 450 Brothers and 5,000 Sisters worldwide, operating 600 mission schools and shelters in 120 countries.
As one of God’s Choice Agents of Change, Mother Teresa’s life still reminds us of our awesome privilege and opportunity, as she admonishes us, “The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do it anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”
I learned a whole lot from being in Calcutta and observing the mind-boggling accomplishments of Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity since 1948. The entire endeavor is such a remarkable example of the biblical idea that the factor of a person’s availability is far greater than the factor of the person’s ability. Mother Teresa was used of God as an astounding Agent of Change. She made herself available to the work of “goodness” and God gave her the ability to see the accomplishment of the task.
Following my Calcutta experiences, I was driven to an even deeper personal and spiritual commitment. My prayer was, “God, I want to make myself available to you more than ever before. You will have to fill in the ability part – I really want to be a Change Maker for Good in this old world!”
“Speak tenderly; let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don’t only give your care, but give your heart as well.” (Mother Teresa)
Next Week: The Longing for Goodness is Universal
"GOODNESS" Part 6: Goodness Produces Agents of Change
Our present culture urgently needs an infusion of goodness right now. The destructive confusion, pain, and grief being released on our present culture through regrettable malevolence, greed, and hateful actions must not be allowed to go unanswered. As we are learning, it takes a choice to invite and develop excellence of character. The good news, however, is that we are the ultimate recipients of the benefits that flow from our attitudes and actions of goodness.
I recall hearing a powerful story while I was traveling through Katmandu, Nepal:
Past the seeker as he prayed came the crippled and the beggar and the beaten. And seeing them, the holy one went down into deep prayer and cried, “Great God, how is it that a loving Creator can see such things and yet do nothing about them?” And out of the long silence, God said, “I did do something, I made you.”
“I made YOU!” Obviously, the intention is that throughout my life I will become involved in doing something about the condition and situation of the crippled, the beggar and the beaten. But I must do something even more than just sitting with my legs crossed and praying and asking the “God-stumping” questions. It is imperative that I invite into my life the opportunity to do something about the situation, invite the help that it will take to do it, and also, determine to develop, through one choice at a time, the strength of character to enable me to become effective enough to make a difference in this old world.
I stopped counting the number of countries into which I have traveled when I reached the number of 150 countries. I really don’t know what the total is up to now, and it really doesn’t matter. Most people have a tough time even reciting the names of 20 countries. But, during my travels I have met many people who have inspired me with their lives. The common thread that seemed to run through the fabric of each life was the determination to be involved in attitudes and actions of goodness. But it had to be an individual choice for each. They, at some point in life, had invited and developed a certain level of personal character.
Out from that reservoir of excellence of character were now flowing rivers of kindness, truthfulness, generosity, fairness, sympathy, personal responsibility, virtue, justice and wisdom. Their effect on the people and circumstances around them was literally changing their world.
“Rivers of kindness” in Rajahmundry:
I remember meeting Dr. Syam Kumar and his wife Mary Jean on one of my many trips to India. To me, he was a bundle of high energy that had been marinated and soaked through and through in a potion of dead-earnest compassion. Genetically, he had been born into the Brahman High Caste of India.
But somewhere along the line Syam Kumar’s parents had bumped into some very caring Christians and consequently they had raised Syam in a devout Christian home. The family’s sensitivity level had been piqued as they now viewed India’s tragic caste system from new eyes of kindness, justice and sympathy.
Young Syam had decided to become a doctor. He determined to give his life to donating medical care to the poorest of the “untouchables” of Eastern India.
I had flown into Calcutta, and had caught another India Air flight to Vishakhapatnam on the eastern coast of India. There, Dr. Syam Kumar had picked me up and we traveled another 7 ½ hours to the city of Rajahmundry where the doctor, his wife and their small son lived.
“Dr. Jackson,” he confided in me, “It is nothing less than a miracle that I am a doctor today in India. When the Medical University found out that I was a Christian they did everything within their power to wash me out of the system.”
He continued, “They altered my test answers and manipulated my grades and actively tried to keep me from passing my exams. But in spite of all they could do I was second highest in my class and I was the very first Christian to graduate from the Medical University. You see, when I vowed to be a doctor to the poorest and most pitiable people in India something wonderful happened. God opened the doors and all I had to do was to walk through them.”
Then, with the same determined high energy and confidence he turned to me and said, “Now we will go to my clinic and you will see for yourself. Dr. Jackson, I need you to help me because you will see that I have nothing in my clinic except sick people and God.”
I was being infected not with any of the strange diseases of India but I certainly was being infected with the passion and focus of this dedicated Indian doctor. And I was eager to visit his clinic.
While at the clinic, a frail little Indian woman came in with an advanced sinus infection and severe facial pain. Additionally, she had a blocked septum. Minor surgery would regularly take a doctor about 10 minutes and with some antibiotics the woman would have experienced relief. Dr. Kumar literally begged me to send him an electric blood cauterizer in order to perform such procedures along with enabling him to more efficiently remove tonsils from adult and pediatric patients. Presently, he had nothing.
Ringworm, scabies parasites and other skin problems were rampant with the tens of thousands of “untouchables” in the Rajahmundry area. To watch Dr. Syam Kumar work with those people touched my heart deeply. I could see how much he openly loved the people and cared for them. No other doctor had ever come to help them.
Previously, I had asked many people in India to help me bring medical aid to the “untouchables.” The answer had always been the same, “Oh, Dr Jackson, just why would we want to do a thing like that? You must understand our culture and our beliefs. Those people are poor and wretched for a reason. They, or their parents or grandparents have done something in a lifetime that was so awful that they really messed up their Karma.”
“That infraction has determined where they are today. They must be left alone to learn what it is that they should learn. You see if we were to step in and help them, they would never learn what it is that they should learn and as a consequence they would have to return in life again and again and repeat the process over and over until they learn the lessons. Someday they might be able to merit being born in a future life into a higher level. So, it is not only kind but also necessary to let them alone. For now, they can work for us and do the things we would not do. And if they are obedient citizens, and good learners, maybe someday, they can learn what they need to learn and have the opportunity of coming back as wealthy artisans, government leaders, business people, military or educators and join us. Someday, perhaps they can be like us. They all have that hope. So, it is best not to disturb the system and try to help them right now.”
But -- there was Dr. Kumar! What he was doing was revolutionary and “counter-culture.” He had chosen the opportunity to do something about the “crippled, and the beggar and the beaten.” And as I watched, I determined within my heart, that I would do everything within my power to help that dear man to accomplish his goals!
“I did do something – I made you!”
Next Week: I Want to be a Change Maker for Good
"GOODNESS" Part 5: The Awesome Invitation
How can it be that Colonel Vi in Vietnam, or Charles Dicken’s Ebenezer Scrooge, actually had the power to choose to pursue “goodness?” Just where did they get their permission to do such a crazy thing as choose? Just where did you get your opportunity and obligation to make personal choices? We usually go racing at break-neck speed down the road of everyday trauma, when suddenly we are confronted with non-avoidable alternatives. We can’t embrace all the alternatives at the same time. We must suddenly select the most highly desired and valued alternative – and get on down the road!
Well, strange as it may sound – choice making has something to do with intimacy, and worship, and friendship, -- and it comes at high risk and a high cost.
God created you with the function of the will, or volition: that amplitude allowing the choosing of a desired alternative. That feature was extraordinary and revolutionary. The Creator not only gave you the prerogative and leniency to choose what you wanted to eat for lunch, or when you wanted to cross the road, (like other animals) but, in fact, created you as a “free moral agent.”
You are the one who gets to choose to pursue goodness in your life – or not! God longed for fellowship, communication, expression, adoration, and worship. “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” That meant something spiritual – not just earthy. That meant something eternal.
God already knew that if there was not such a thing as “free moral agency” regarding the will, there could never be true, voluntary, and willing adoration, spiritual comradery, or worship.
Without free moral agency the created object would be nothing more than another pine tree with its noble spires reaching up toward the God that created it; or a cute little chicken that is required to take a drink of water, then lift its beak heavenward in order to swallow the water. God was seriously interested in creating more than robotic worshippers. He desired his highest creations to want to, on purpose, more than anything else, communicate with and worship him – and freely choose “goodness” -- or not.
God desired our love and worship too much to destroy it by demanding it. God is willing to repeatedly give us insights and understanding as he patiently woos us in his attempt to persuade us how much he loves us. He invites us to love, honor, and worship him only if we really choose to.
Let’s review, again, our working definition of “goodness”:
Humans have a unique capacity to attain, through invitation and development, excellence of character, and based on that character they can choose to become involved in initiating attitudes and actions of kindness, generosity, fairness, sympathy, personal responsibility, virtue, justice and wisdom through their conduct. The genuine initiating and promoting of those attitudes and actions is what we will refer to as “goodness”.
Madame Vi, in Vietnam, had somewhere along her journey in life, an unspeakable spiritual opportunity to wholeheartedly invite attitudes and actions of goodness into her personal life. She gratefully and enthusiastically pursued those opportunities and, not only was her life forever changed – but so were the thousands of lives around her changed for good – forever!
You have the wonderful privilege of inviting into your life the determination to pursue a more excellent way. You alone ultimately hold the common key to two very mysterious locks that control your personal character. The same key unlocks the power of invitation as well as the power of development. You are the one who must invite into your life excellence of character. And you must be the one who puts into motion the discipline to develop that excellence of character throughout your lifetime. And, it will be you, and you alone, that will insert the magic key that turns the tumblers of the locks of “goodness.”
Next Week: Goodness Produces Agents of Change
"GOODNESS" Part 4: Goodness is a Choice
No one can make you choose to pursue “goodness” as a lifestyle. The choice is all yours! But Oh! – what an absolute delight it is to observe someone who has decided to, on purpose, dedicate their life to such an extraordinary and revolutionary way of life!
I would like to take this opportunity to share with you one of my most favorite stories in the whole world regarding “goodness.” By the year 2004, Project C.U.R.E. was very well known and highly respected throughout the country of Vietnam. We had shipped hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of donated medical supplies and pieces of equipment into Vietnam’s needy medical system.
I had taken Anna Marie with me on this particular trip into Hanoi and the northern area of Vietnam. We were scheduled to meet with Thuong Tuong Vi, a Full Colonel in the Vietnamese Army, in the city of Tam Ky. We were taken in a van from our previous need’s assessment meeting at the main hospital in Nui Thanh Town, to the “Mercy Center” in Tam Ky.
You can only imagine how surprised we were when we were introduced to Colonel Vi – she was a very dignified and gracious lady! She was not only a Full Colonel, but was a past member of the Central Committee of the People’s Party and a high-profile citizen of the city of Hanoi. In her past, she had been one of Vietnam’s most renowned artistic performers. She was a professional singer and dancer and had been the recipient of many awards for her talents, and especially for her entertaining of the military and People’s Party members.
But several years before, someone had introduced her to the person of Jesus Christ and Thuong Tuong Vi had become a very devoted Christian. “My life changed dramatically,” she told me, “I no longer wanted fame and attention for myself, I only had a burning desire to help other people, especially young, disadvantaged children.”
Thuong Tuong Vi, in her dignified and attractive way, went on to explain to us, “I suddenly realized that one day I would no longer have my talents and my beautiful voice and that I should take those talents and transfer them into orphaned and homeless children, crippled children, and into children who otherwise would not have any hope at all of a good future.
So, the gifted and beautiful performer set out to collect abandoned and disadvantaged children, place them into a school she had carefully organized and train them in the performing arts.
The “turn-around” in Thuong Tuong Vi’s life had shocked the Communist Party elite of Vietnam. She had to be sensitive and discreet with her new-found Christian faith, but she was being given unheard of opportunities to live out the Christ-like life in front of all her old comrades from the military and People’s Party.
By the time we met Thuong Tuong Vi, she had already established a “Mercy Center” in Tam Ky City where she was housing and training 72 children. In Da Nang City her “Mercy Center” was taking care of 120 children, and in the city of Hanoi she was taking care of another 180 children.
Our visit with Thuong Tuong Vi took place at her center in Tam Ky. Following a meeting in her large conference room we were ushered upstairs to the small performing auditorium and stage where we were honored with a mini-concert performed by the artistic children.
The first song was a traditional Vietnamese folk song. It was performed beautifully and the music was accompanied by choreography and hand signing. Then the next song started with the words:
“In a moment like this, I think of a song
I think of a song about Jesus.”
It was phonetically sung in perfect English and there was no secret that the master performer had meticulously trained the young singers to communicate with smiles, warm and direct eye contact, body language and vibrant stage presence. But there was something so warm and genuine and overwhelming that occurred when they started into the words of the chorus:
“Singing, I love you Lord, I love you Lord
Singing I love you Lord, I love you.”
We were all in tears. I looked over in the direction of my dear friend, Dr. Vinh Ngoc Le -- he was sobbing like a baby. It was a performance and an unexpected time of true worship that I should never forget.
The mini-concert finished with the disadvantaged Vietnamese children singing, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” and a couple of religious Christmas Carols.
When the performance was over, we were all once again directed to the conference room where they had prepared lovely dishes of hot Vietnamese snack foods and tea for us. There I had a good opportunity to talk with Thuong Tuong Vi about her needs at her “Mercy Centers.”
Her dream was to one day have a well-stocked, small medical clinic at each of her three school locations. I assured her that I would speak with Dr. Vinh Ngoc Le and assured her that Project C.U.R.E. would love to get involved with seeing her dream come true for being able to medically help her kids.
I asked her also about how she was getting by with openly teaching her kids about Jesus. She said, “One of my aims is to teach all the children to speak English fluently. The People’s Party and other government officials love that. So, I first teach the children to sing the songs about Jesus, phonetically. Once they have mastered the singing the proper sounds of the songs I need to go on and teach them the meaning of the lyrics. Of course, as with any other song, the children have lots of questions about what the lyrics of the songs mean. I just simply answer all their questions so that they can sing the songs with understanding and feeling. Strangely, they all fall in love with Jesus.”
Then, Colonel Vi confidently shared something with Anna Marie and me, that once again, brought tears to my eyes: I can’t go back and start a new beginning, but I can start today and make a new ending!”
“Madame Vi” had purposefully chosen to pursue goodness.
No one is big enough or tough enough to make you choose to pursue goodness as a lifestyle. It’s all up to you. But the rewards belong to you as well. Therefore, it is you that gets to set into motion the positive consequences of your choosing a life of pursuing goodness.
Recall our simple working definition of goodness:
Humans have a unique capacity to attain, through invitation and development, excellence of character, and based on that character they can choose to become involved in initiating attitudes and actions of kindness, generosity, fairness, sympathy, personal responsibility, virtue, justice and wisdom through their conduct. The genuine initiating and promoting of those attitudes and actions is what we will refer to as “goodness”.
Next Week: The Awesome Invitation
"GOODNESS" Part 3: Not a New Concept
So as not to just use Charles Dickens as our sole source of authority on the subject of goodness, let’s consult an older sage.
In about the year 650 B.C., a societal reporter and commentator named Jeremiah observed some extremely selfish and perverse behavior being practiced by the citizens of his country. Jeremiah was not just a local self-publisher or contributor to his local newspaper or web site. His was a royal appointment and he was to observe, process, evaluate and then report to the King of his country, regarding the thinking and behavior of the society. He then was expected to take those observations and accurately predict or prophesy the future and what would happen inside and outside the kingdom. If he prophesied inaccurately, he would be killed and someone else would take his place that could get it right.
Jeremiah’s duty was to report to King Josiah. Their relationship was an interesting one because Jeremiah was not intimidated or swayed by what King Josiah wanted to hear about the state of his country. Jeremiah was confident that his marching orders really came from divine intuition and a divine calling to simply call the situations as he saw them.
Many of us today wonder just when this present conflict in the Middle East will be resolved and peace established in the old “Fertile Crescent?” In Jeremiah’s time Syria had reached her zenith in power and was declining. Her once superior armies were losing major battles especially to the Chaldeans and Medes led by Nabopolassar the King of Babylon located just south of the present city of Baghdad in the country of Iraq.
I have personally stood within the walls of the ancient city of Babylon and have tried to envision the power that would have emanated from such an epicenter of strength and influence. Later on in history, even Alexander the Great chose Babylon as his command center upon his having conquered the known world of his day.
Babylon sought an alliance with Egypt’s Pharaoh-Necho and during one of the decisive battles Naboplossar was killed and his son Nebuchadnezzar rose up to take his place on the world battlefield. This “Mid-East Crisis” has been going on for a long time.
The people of Josiah’s country were perversely wicked with their fertility cults, sacred prostitutes and practices of human sacrifices. Jeremiah personally confronted the King and painted a regretful picture of what the King and his kingdom had to look forward to should they not change their purpose in life in order to change their destiny and legacy forever.
Then, Jeremiah pulled rank on the King and reminded him that it had been God himself that had given Jeremiah the credentials to speak the truth. It had been God who had said, “I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations . . . thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak . . .Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth . . . ‘Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth’ . . .”
Jeremiah informed the King that he was there to present an opportunity for the King and the people to change their purpose and direction lest the Babylonian armies attack them, destroy their cities and carry them off as slaves to Babylon. But the good news was that if they altered their purpose and direction there was still a chance of escaping such a fate.
Charles Dickens had sent old Marley to Scrooge with an opportunity to rewire his basic priority system of life and get the circuit board of life’s purpose figured out while there was yet time.
It wasn’t old Marley, but it had been God that had sent Jeremiah to the King with the same insight and proposition. And the prescription was pretty much the same, “Stop being so stinking selfish and greedy and start focusing on the attitudes and actions of goodness. Start saturating your life with excellence, virtue, kindness, and friendliness. Develop the qualities of justice, fairness, sympathy, moral courage, concern for others and personal responsibility.
Charles Dickens’ message through the words of old Marley is as meaningful and apropos to us today as it was when written in 1843. The way that Jeremiah delivered his message speaks specifically to our present culture just as much as it did to the culture in 650 B.C. Use your imagination and just listen to Jeremiah deliver his “Thus saith the Lord” directive nearly 2,650 years ago:
“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom,
Or the strong man boast of his strength,
Or the rich man boast of his riches,
But let him who boasts, boast about this:
That he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who
Exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth,
For in these I delight,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23-24, NIV)
The boasting of how smart I am, how strong or influential I am or how rich I might be is a dead giveaway clue to the fact that I am still addicted to the personal accumulation game. I am basically preoccupied with me. Instead of singing, “How Great Thou Art” I am still singing, “How Great I Am.”
The phrase that captures the pictures in my mind is: “I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight.” When God exercises kindness, justice and righteousness he says that it makes God happy. And when we spend our lives exercising kindness, justice and righteousness on this earth it makes Him exceedingly happy. So, if you want to put a smile on the face of God, it is simple. Just spend all your time and all your energies being head-over-heels involved in exercising kindness, justice and righteousness.
In Jeremiah’s directive he also claimed that God had offered an extremely powerful invitation. He says that if a person is going to boast of any credentials, let him boast that he understands and knows God. He is giving us an invitation to understand the very mind of God. And certainly, when we are totally involved in giving ourselves to attitudes and actions of goodness, including kindness, justice and righteousness we are beginning to open up the heart of God and enjoy the very thoughts and mind of God.
“Business,” cried Marley the ghost, wringing his hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business: charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business.”
You will never regret spending your life in a full-time pursuit of goodness. It will set you on an adventure of reward and fulfillment never imagined by you in your wildest dreams.
Just recall the joy and excitement that entered the life of Ebenezer Scrooge that memorable Christmas Day when he realized that he had the undeserved opportunity to stop just thinking inwardly about himself and his world and could start thinking outwardly toward others around him. That decision and follow-through brought cascading down on him fulfillment and worth he had never before known.
Next Week: Goodness is a Choice
"GOODNESS" Part 2: A Working Definition
While traveling in Tanzania during October, 1998, I wrote a statement in my Travel Journal, “Roads I Traveled Delivering Health and Hope”, that summarized an emotion-filled observation I had encountered: “The Journey from success to significance is, of necessity, traveled over the road of goodness!”
I suppose that the idea of “goodness” belongs to the subject of ethics. I have tried to take the concept of goodness and imagine myself holding it in my hands and turning it around and around much as I would hold and inspect a fine Burmese ruby from old Rangoon. While rotating the object I would be able to allow the natural sunlight to reflect and expose the incomprehensible beauty of each different facet.
One facet would certainly reveal that goodness is an assertion of value. One subtle characteristic of that facet could even be that goodness might not only reveal what I want, but also what I ought to want. There is a kind of subjective tone to goodness as well as an objective tone.
There also seems to be a sort of eternal component to goodness as well as a more earthly component, like the intrinsic value of honesty just for honesty sake vs. instrumental value of goodness, like a certain goodness in money that would allow or enable me to gain some other good, say food or shelter for my kids.
Maybe, if we could take that Burmese ruby and hold it out at arm’s length, we would be surprised just how beautiful it could be in its striking totality. Goodness, I think is like that. At that distance we all could probably agree that goodness carries with it the distinction of excellence of character. It would apply to the inner quality that makes a person kind, generous, fair, sympathetic and otherwise honorable in character and conduct.
In a general sense, I think goodness would include moral excellence that could be acquired by consciously developing particular qualities of character such as moral courage, justice and wise judgment. Usually, that broad observation of goodness would radiate with the idea of consciously following some prescribed principles of right and wrong. There, of necessity, has to be an author of goodness.
I am very curious and intrigued by the idea and consequences of goodness. But for this study, I would feel more comfortable to let the gemologists study the gems and the philosophers, theologians and ethicists study the etymology of the word “goodness.” Therefore, I would like to submit the following to be our simple “working definition” of the concept of “goodness” herein, and get on with the exciting manifestations, observations and lessons we can gain from this phenomenon of “goodness”:
Humans have a unique capacity to attain, through invitation and development, excellence of character, and based on that character they can choose to become involved in initiating attitudes and actions of kindness, generosity, fairness, sympathy, personal responsibility, virtue, justice and wisdom through their conduct. The genuine initiating and promoting of those attitudes and actions is what we will refer to as “goodness”.
I think we can apply that simple working definition to the saga of Marley and Scrooge, and also apply it to many other exciting examples that will follow herein. I think it will make a lot of sense to see if we can connect the dots between the examples with a simple line that will help us discover that, in deed: “The journey from success to significance is, of necessity, traveled over the road of goodness.”
Next Week: “Goodness” is not a New Concept